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Panel Discussion: Swoon @ Brooklyn Museum

In April, 2014, I was invited to participate in a panel discussion at Brooklyn Museum to coincide with the exhibition “Swoon: Submerged Motherlands.” Speaking in the museum’s Cantor Auditorium, I was joined by Swoon, Katherine Lorimer, Steven P. Harrington, Jaime Rojo, and Sharon Matt Atkins (Managing Curator of Exhibitions at Brooklyn Museum).

Project: FABLES – National Endowment for the Arts

During the Spring of 2014 I directed “FABLES,” a public art series produced by Fourth Arts Block to explore the Lower East Side’s living cultural heritage, rich historical legacies, and current issues in public storytelling through visual art. “FABLES” was supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts/ Art Works and by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in participation with The City Council. “FABLES” was presented in celebration of LES History month, the inaugural celebration of the rich and diverse history of the LES, which will now take place each year during the month of May.

On Dec 31st, 1979, a group of artists in downtown Manhattan mounted a now historic exhibition, “The Real Estate Show,” in response to grim economic conditions facing tenants in New York. It was a confrontational and illegal exhibition, held without permission in a vacant city-owned building, with aggressive political messages that ignited controversy and galvanized city officials, news media and artists alike.

This group, Collaborative Projects Inc (Colab), focused on theme-centered exhibitions with a spirit of openness, experimentation, and minimal curatorial interference. Within this context, “No City is an Island” asked former members of Colab to respond to the exhibition’s title as a theme around which to contribute work. Dialogues were rekindled and themes were revisited or reinterpreted. As each artist has evolved over time, so has the city itself. With a range of works transversing 35 years, “No City is an Island” revisits the zeitgeist of a New York City long bygone, compares and contrasts the artists and urban realities of then with now, and honors one of the most influential art organizations in New York City’s history.

The exhibition is part of a multi-venue celebration of Colab and revisitation of “The Real Estate Show” with “The Real Estate Show, Was Then: 1980″ at James Fuentes Gallery (April 4 – 27), “RESx” at ABC No Rio (April 9 – May 8), “No City Is An Island” at The Lodge Gallery (April 10 – May 11), and “The Real Estate Show, What Next: 2014″ at Cuchifritos Gallery (April 19 – May 18). It is also a component of May 2014’s inaugural Lower East Side History Month, which will now be observed each May with over 60 Lower East Side organizations currently participating.

Outdoors: Amanda Browder “Good Morning!”

As Director of Public Art for Fourth Arts Block, and curator for SUSTAIN (Steering Urban Sustainability Through Action, Innovation & Networks), I worked on a variety of projects that aimed to harness and focus the talents of artists, architects, engineers, residents, small businesses, and activists towards development and implementation of creative solutions to the challenges of urban sustainability for one city block — E. 4th Street between 2nd Avenue and Bowery in Manhattan’s East Village. SUSTAIN was a two-year program made possible by a generous award from the Rockefeller Foundation Cultural Innovation Fund and was in partnership with Cooper Union’s Institute for Sustainable Design.

In September of 2013, we unveiled a large-scale fabric installation over the facade of a building on East 4th Street by artist Amanda Browder. The fabric used in the artwork, titled “Good Morning!”, was donated by people from the neighborhood with support from Materials for the Arts. Browder held a months long series of Public Sewing Days that invited the local community to contribute towards the production of the piece, with participation by youth groups and senior citizens alike.

EXHIBIT: “FOR WHICH IT STANDS” @ The Lodge Gallery, NYC

June 28 through August 18, 2013
Curated by Keith Schweitzer and Jason Patrick Voegele

“For Which it Stands is a show about America. With 17 artists in the exhibition, and 13 different nations represented, one may wonder how this show speaks about America. My answer to this is that we cannot speak about America without speaking about people from other places in the world. We’ve all arrived here from somewhere else, either directly or at some other point in our family lineage. We’re a nation of immigrants, and our national culture is dynamic, always in flux, influenced by the cultures that are brought here. America is a remix, an experiment held together by systems and rules that give us order but also generous latitude to be who we are as individuals.

For Which It Stands is also a show about influences. We, as a nation, are as influenced by those who come here as they are influenced by coming here themselves. This is very observable in New York, where it seems to happen right before your eyes in real time, particularly on the Lower East Side. Then these combinations, unified under one flag, influence externally and project outward to nations outside of our own. It’s a feedback loop, an array of intercontinental Möbius strips, and it’s beautiful. The artists and artworks in the show help to tell this story.”
– Keith Schweitzer

Dennis McNett Workshop @ Sara D. Roosevelt Park, NYC

I organized an outdoor afternoon of art, skateboards & songs on the Lower East Side where kids 17 and under were invited to “trick out” blank skateboard decks through an art workshop led by Dennis McNett. The event included live music, outdoor exhibitions and guest appearances by professional skateboarders Andrew Allen, Julien Stanger & Tony Trujillo. Following the outdoor event, an indoor reception and exhibition of Dennis McNett’s artwork took place at The Lodge Gallery

TERRY SMITH @ DRAWING CENTER / NEW MUSEUM / FABnyc

In May, 2013, I co-organized Terry Smith’s “Capital Revisited.” The large-scale project was exhibited along 5 outdoor locations within my public art program with Fourth Arts Block. Jason Patrick Voegele, my partner in Republic Worldwide, led as Project Manager during the multi-site installation.

“Capital Revisited was commissioned by The Drawing Center in collaboration with the New Museum during IDEAS CITY 2013. The project was initiated by David Thorp. In 1995 I made a work at the British Museum called “Capital.” In New York 2013, for IDEAS CITY I revisited this work in a series of fragments focused on buildings in the East Village, just off the Bowery.

The project lasted twenty three days and began with an intensive period of drawing in my temporary studio in the basement of LaMaMa.

The work is a 54 ft x 38 ft drawing made in mixed media, broken and assembled in sections and relocated in five locations around the Bowery area of New York using wooden fences, outside walls and windows…

Capital Revisited was made possible through the help, support, expertise and good humour of Jason Patrick Voegele and Keith Schweitzer of Republic Worldwide.” – Terry Smith

Exhibit: “Die Wunderkammer” @ The Lodge Gallery, NYC

March 21st through April 28th, 2013, our inaugural exhibition of The Lodge Gallery deconstructed and reimagined the traditional Wunderkammer through works by over a dozen New York based contemporary artists.

Rafael Lozano-Hemmer & Rahzel @ Bitforms Gallery

On Sept 6th, 2012, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer opened his exhibition at Bitforms Gallery featuring the United States premiere of two projects: “Voice Array”, and “Last Breath.”

The exhibition’s opening featured a performance by legendary vocal percussionist Rahzel who explored Lozano-Hemmer’s “Voice Array” within the musical context of human beatboxing. I co-produced this collaboration with Laura Blereau, Director of Bitforms Gallery.

Mural: “The Weight of Air” FAITH47, East 2nd St., NYC

I curated and organized an outdoor mural with South African artist FAITH47, titled “The Weight of Air”, on a building exterior located at 22 East 2nd Street slightly west of 2nd Avenue. This was a component of Fourth Arts Block’s outdoor visual art program around the Cultural District in Manhattan’s Lower East Side (in partnership with MaNY Project). Location: Ideal Glass

Exhibit: “Saints of the Lower East Side” NYC

In June of 2012 I curated “Saints of the Lower East Side” by artist Tom Sanford. The outdoor exhibition features seven painted portraits mounted 14 feet above street level on a scaffolding bridge located at 70 East 4th Street. The array of large gilded paintings are intended as an homage to cultural icons who lived and worked on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. In the artist words, “These seven individuals [Martin Wong, Joey Ramone, Miguel Piñero, Ellen Stewart, Charlie Parker, Arthur Fellig and Allen Ginsberg], along with hundreds more, make the Lower East Side the crucible of the American avant-­‐garde and a neighborhood that captivates my imagination as a New York artist.”

This exhibit is part of a series of temporary art installations in atypical locations in the Lower East Side produced through FABnyc’s public art program, of which I am Director. Many thanks to Jason Patrick Voegele of Republic Worldwide, for managing the installation and project overall, and to Graham Preston for working closely with Tom on the paintings. Produced in collaboration with MaNY Project. Photo by Udom Surangsophon

Exhibit: “Our Ladies of Infamy and Grandeur” NYC

In June of 2012 I curated “Our Ladies of Infamy and Grandeur” by artist Graham Preston, an exhibition of five gilded paintings honoring the exploits, undertakings and legends of lost cultural heroines from the historical Five Points neighborhood.

Preston arrived at the concept for this series through numerous conversations with his friend and mentor, Tom Sanford. Additionally, in the artist’s words, “I came up with the initial idea for this series of paintings while reading ‘The Blackest Bird’ by NYC author Joel Rose. I wanted to explore the lore of embellished accounts from Manhattan’s early days [. . .] The implied iconography in these paintings calls our attention to narratives which, in some cases, have managed to live on through time as mere sentiments found within a few sentences in a couple of books [. . .] I wanted to make small paintings which glorify small events by rather insignificant and even infamous individuals within the context of our written histories.”

June 26th, 2012 through September 5th, 2012. Presented by Fourth Arts Block at 75 East 4th Street, New York, NY 10003

Mural: “Music Machine” @ East Village, NYC

In May of 2012 I curated “Music Machine“, an outdoor mural installation in the alley behind CBGB’s former location in Manhattan’s East Village. Featuring a 1,000 square foot ground mural by Argentinian artist Sonni, the exhibition was presented by Fourth Arts Block in partnership with MaNY Project.

Mural: CAKE @ East Village, NYC

I curated and organized an outdoor mural with artist CAKE, titled “Truth Implies the Good”, on a building exterior located on East 3rd Street slightly east of Bowery. This was the 2nd mural of the 2012 season for Fourth Arts Block’s outdoor visual art program in Manhattan’s East Village (in partnership with MaNY Project). Location: La MaMa

Exhibit: “This Side of Paradise” Bronx, NY

On April 4, 2012, the gates of the Andrew Freedman Home opened to the public. The Home was once built to be a haven, a paradise, for the rich elderly who had lost their fortunes. Bequeathed by millionaire Andrew Freedman, the Home provided not only food and shelter but all the accoutrements of a rich and civilized life style – white glove dinner service, a grand ball room, a wood-paneled library, billiard room and a social committee who organized concerts, opera performances and the like.

Referencing this quixotic history, This Side of Paradise references the past and reconnect the vision of Andrew Freedman to today’s Bronx and its realities. The exhibition and its extensive public programming onsite and offsite draws together the economic and social history of the Home with the present day realities of the Bronx and its residents.

The selected artists’ work in a site-specific manner and respond to such issues as memory, immigration, storytelling, aging and the creation of fantasy that the original concept of the Home “being poor in style” suggests. This Side of Paradise celebrates human ingenuity, the strength of the human spirit and the resilience needed to fashion beauty, hope and rejoicing.

Mural: Know Hope @ East Village, NYC

During Armory Arts Week 2012, I organized an outdoor mural with artist Know Hope on a building exterior located at 22 East 2nd Street. This mural launched the 2012 season for Fourth Arts Block’s outdoor visual art program in Manhattan’s East Village (in partnership with MaNY Project). I documented Know Hope, which can be seen in the video below:

Exhibit: Mac Premo’s “The Dumpster Project”

I was a consultant for “The Dumpster Project” by artist Mac Premo. The exhibition, installed within a 30 foot dumpster, is a magnificent work of transportable art. Constructed using over 450 personal items collected over the course of 20 years, The Dumpster Project was called the artist’s “Magnum Opus, the biggest and strangest art project of his career” by the New York Times. Conceived by the artist, who can alternatively be described as a “collagist, animator, (emmy-award winning) film director or carpenter”, the exhibition was produced by The Frank Collective. Production of the dumpster was hosted by Macro Sea. The Dumpster Project is fiscally sponsored by the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA). Mac is represented by Pavel Zoubok Gallery.

Exhibit: “The Grassy Lot” 145 Ludlow Street, NYC

In August 2011, I curated and organized an outdoor exhibition entitled “The Grassy Lot” on the Lower East Side of Manhattan (145 Ludlow Street) with Joe Franquinha of Crest Arts, the MaNY Project, and Brooklyn Street Art.

Mural: Depoe @ Allegra LaViola Gallery, NYC

In mid-June, 2010, I organized an outdoor mural with artist Depoe at Allegra LaViola Gallery (179 East Broadway, NYC) as a component of an exhibition titled “Draw The Line”. The exhibition opened on June 29th, 2011, and ran until August 6th.

Exhibit: “Up Close & Personal” UWS, NYC

In May 2011, I curated an exhibition on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with RJ Rushmore of Vandalog and Michael Glatzer of the MaNY Project. Entitled “Up Close & Personal”, the exhibit presented small works, in an indoor setting, by a group of artists who are internationally renowned for painting large works outdoors.

Mural Project: Coney Island, New York

In April of 2011, Coney Island invited me to organize a series of large scale murals throughout the amusement park as part of No Longer Empty‘s ongoing mural program. Beginning with the main entrances to the park and working our way inward, six artists covered more than 4,000 square feet of exterior surfaces with artwork referencing Coney Island‘s legendary iconography and the surrounding beachfront boardwalk’s imagery. I captured the above video during the first phase of the project.

Mural: How & Nosm @ East 14th Street, NYC

In March of 2011, I worked with the MaNY Project and artist duo “How & Nosm” to organize this street facing mural on the exterior roll-down gate of a storefront located on East 14th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues.

Exhibit: “Watch This Space” Dumbo, NY

In September, 2010, I curated “Watch This Space” with Manon Slome and Jodie Dinapoli. The site-specific exhibition, which united two indoor spaces with a related series of outdoor murals on construction scaffolding, referenced Dumbo’s intensive ongoing construction in its march to gentrification and it’s storied history as a manufacturing and transportation hub.

In Cal Lane‘s installation, crushed steel from the remains of an automobile explosion has been hand cut – using a blow torch – into a delicate lace pattern. Her transformation of a destroyed motor vehicle into fabric-like drapery mimics Dumbo’s former industrial and current residential purposes; a shift from strong to delicate, from utility to frivolity, from functional to ornamental.

Michel de Broin‘s installation, “Bleed”, positioned an electric hand-drill as a precarious fountain. The construction tool placed upon a fine art pedestal, it’s cord plugged into an electrical outlet, as endless streams of water gushed from five holes in its damaged body. The piece poses unanswerable questions of its creation and destruction. Might the object have been left out accidentally by construction staff before opening the exhibition? Is it really part of the exhibition? (see video HERE)

Through a repeating woven pattern, Jordan Seiler‘s 950 square-foot mural concealed the all-too-familiar rectangular shape of exterior construction scaffolding by shifting perspective with an effective optical illusion. The mural continued through and behind the scaffolding’s front facing wall, forming an additional artwork altogether which could only be viewed from behind within the indoor exhibition spaces.

Lincoln Schatz‘s multimedia installation secretly captured security camera footage of all who visited the exhibition, constantly storing, recalling, and displaying video of it’s unwitting subjects as they became part of the “Cluster”, a nod to the omnipresent surveillance cameras in modern urban society.

Alejandro Almanza Pereda‘s sculptural works levitated solid construction cinderblocks over fragile household lightbulbs. The inclusion of Alexandre Arrechea‘s watercolor and sculptural works make a whimsical comment on the ubiquity of development in Brooklyn and the impossible ease with which buildings seem to be erected.

Murals: Dumbo Arts Festival 2010

Invited by the organizers of Dumbo Arts Festival, I organized and curated four large outdoor murals throughout the festival grounds in Dumbo, Brooklyn. This outdoor component of No Longer Empty’s “Watch This Space” featured artists Chris Stain, Imminent Disaster, Jordan Seiler and Helen Dennis. The site-specific murals were inspired by Dumbo’s rich industrial history and its hulking architectural elements and were installed on large lengths of wooden scaffolding and construction shedding.

Spotlighting more than twenty artists that work with sound, light, and image, Never Can Say Goodbye recreated a fantasy version of the now defunct Tower Records store with (the fictitious) Never Records byTed Riederer- an installation complete with record bins, album covers, music posters and a performance stage.

Invader‘s larger-than-life album cover recreations, fabricated entirely from Rubik’s Cubes, brought to mind outdated 8-bit computer pixel art while referencing legendary rock bands that topped the music charts during the former retail giant’s glory days. Works by Meredyth Sparks, simultaneously critique and revere the flat glamour of icons such as David Bowie and half-nude eighties models. Artist Siebren Versteeg presented custom installations that memorialized the mixtapes he made as a teenager and the earliest methods of downloading music online. Ryan Brennanbounced sound through an eight-boom box installation offering an audio tour of Hip Hop.

Exhibit: “Beyond the Daily Life” Art Basel, Miami

During Art Basel Miami 2009, I worked with curator Julian Navarro on “Beyond the Daily Life”, an installation based exhibition mounted in a 10,000 square foot exhibition space adjacent to the Center for Visual Communication featuring large scale works by artist Teresa Diehl and artist-duo Guerra de la Paz.

Teresa Diehl presented an immersive video installation that enveloped visitors within a tranquil, highly meditative environment, an alternate space far removed from the intensity of life’s daily events and routines. An additional sculptural installation constructed a floor-to-ceiling mountain made entirely from delicate glycerin soap. Hundreds of three-inch miniature figurines in the form of sheep being carried by women, calmly climbed to the mountain’s peak as the sound of helicopters looped ominously.

Guerra de la Paz presented three monumental works using recycled apparel in meticulously woven, playful sculptures addressing relics that often define an individual’s personality and commenting on environmental issues, mass consumption and disposability. A separate, almost hidden room, revealed two sculptural forms of male figures in business suits, neckties emerging as cobra heads and a briefcase being exchanged, “Sealing the Deal“.

A review detailing the exhibition, with video, can be viewed at this LINK

Mural: GAIA @ 223 East Broadway, NYC

Concurrent to No Longer Empty’s “Re-Purpose” exhibition, I organized and documented a mural on the roll-down gate at the store-front’s exterior, with artist GAIA, as a continuation of NLE’s ongoing site-specific mural program.

Exhibit: “Re-Purpose” East Broadway, NYC

Mounted in an empty storefront space in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, the exhibition examined the notion of repurposing objects, ideas and images.

Tracey Moffatt‘s video collage, Doomed, featured depictions of doom and destruction comprised through the editing of found footage into a highly entertaining and black-humorous take on the collective fear that we have had since biblical times of impending disaster.

Janet Nolan makes sculptures from repeated singular objects recycled from the everyday world, such as the hundreds of broken umbrellas that she installed in the exhibition space.

Corinne Kamiya‘s performative piece dealt with the desire to recreate some of the generosity of her native Hawaiian culture in an effort to cope with the different culture of New York City.

Exhibit: “Reflecting Transformation” High Line, NYC

Working with the curatorial team for No Longer Empty‘s second exhibition, I managed and directed “Reflecting Transformation”. The exhibit was mounted in a street level indoor space under the just-opened High Line park in Chelsea. Inspired by the re-gentrification of the meat packing area and the renovation of the High Line, Reflecting Transformation was organized to reference this urban regeneration and play on the theme of transformation of space and character. In a minimalist aesthetic, the exhibition also alluded to the healing nature that art can have on a community.

Exhibit & Mural: Hotel Chelsea, W23rd Street, NYC

In July of 2009, I organized a mural on the street-level exterior of the Hotel Chelsea (222 West 23rd Street, NYC) to commemorate our first exhibition as No Longer Empty. Israeli artist “Know Hope“, in collaboration with Chris Stain, created this site-specific artwork directly upon the roll-down gate of NLE’s inaugural exhibition. I documented the artists at work by creating the time-lapse video below:

No Longer Empty began exhibiting at two storefronts at the Chelsea Hotel, the historical art heart of Manhattan. Artists such as Michael Bevilacqua, Alina and Jeff Bliumis and Diana Puntar filled economy-ravaged spaces with installations while responding to the present dire financial straits and its effect on the urban landscape and national psyche. Resident artists at the Hotel Chelsea also exhibited.

No Longer Empty´s first exhibition took the name of its location. The Chelsea Hotel offered a forum for artistic dialogue. The spaces here were not gallery or museum locales and the resulting works and conversations were not defined by such conventional exhibition spaces. Indeed, the exhibition was the pioneer of No Longer Empty´s new model of community art. The project strived to stem any potential neighborhood decline resulting from unused and abandoned buildings by lavishing them with art.